Why don't you just leave him? - Stacey Jameson

This honest and open autobiography is the true story of a young woman trapped in a relationship that was violent and abusive. Coercive control drove her to the depths of despair. Stacey Jameson had a lack of self-esteem derived from her early child hood. Growing up and dealing with her parent's divorce, she felt nothing more than an inconvenience to her depressive mother. With severe feelings of inadequacy, she was desperate to be loved and feel that she belonged. When she was a teenager, she met a boy Leon, and fell in love. She had never felt so happy. They both had one common denominator they were both bought up in volatile homes, this was the foundation for a turbulent and destructive relationship. Stacey was welcomed with open arms into the wings of Leon's twisted family, naive and impressionable she finally felt secure and loved. Stacey's childhood had made her timid and compliant. Leon's childhood had made him controlling and narcissistic. Gradually Stacey found herself in an unhappy relationship where her partner thrived on being abusive, yet she still loved him. She was coercively controlled into doing things that just were not part of her character. She was so manipulated she believed she did not deserve any better. So often people look on with judgement at others who are in an abusive relationship, and say "Why don't they just leave?". Stacey's story describes her journey as to why it's just not so simple to do that. Stacey's story is one of millions of stories, of people who find themselves caught up in a destructive relationship that they just cannot find a way out of.